Something to Look Forward To

"If I'm fucking trash, I just need to grind more!" ... "Throw him out of the palace!" ... "Trash, I need you to aid my cultivation!" ... "Jiejiejiejie! I'm going to practice the Dissociation Art ten more times, damn it!" ... For three whole days, the entire workshop was filled with manic howling, day and night, anytime, anywhere. If not for the excellent soundproofing, Ji Jue probably would have been booted out the door by Professor Ye long ago—or mowed down in a hail of gunfire by Ye Chun before that even happened. How did that saying go again? *A roommate typing on blue switches sounds like celestial music; a page turning sounds as deafening as home renovations.* Just watching him grind himself to the bone, forgetting food and sleep, a certain salted fish with the same surname Ye was already developing a touch of neurasthenia. She even had nightmares where some bastard was grinding furiously behind her, drooling and cackling weirdly as he leaned in: *"Senior, Senior, come to my place tonight! The thesis at my house can do backflips~"* Grind, just keep grinding! Why don't you grind yourself to death already?! This lady has already reserved the best scenic spot at Tianmen Lake for you. Once you're reduced to ashes, you can become a brand-new tourist attraction at Tianmen University: "End of the Dog"! Tossing and turning on the sofa, Ye Chun couldn't muster the slightest bit of sleepiness. She couldn't catch a damn wink of an afternoon nap. The moment she closed her eyes, the image of that grinding try-hard appeared vividly before her. Good heavens above, just kill me already! When will this misery ever end? In a fit of extreme rage, Ye Chun... got mad for a second. Then, in helpless, dying struggle, she dragged herself off the sofa, dawdling every three steps until she slumped in front of her computer. She opened a new folder and a Word document, stared at the blank page, and quietly shed little pearl-like tears. Meanwhile, inside the workshop, an exhausted Ji Jue finally pulled back his sinful hands and collapsed backward into his chair, overwhelmed by drowsiness. Today's practice was pretty much done. The essence of the Dissociation Art lay in the application of one's own spiritus. Provided it took effect, the volume didn't truly matter. Using an uninitiated Dissociation Art on shoddy goods like this could only be described as saving mana. According to the training schedule he had set for himself over the past few days, expending sixty-four percent of his spiritus constituted one cycle; repeating it three times concluded the day. Based on the formula Professor Ye had provided, plugging in his total spiritus reserve and rank showed that sixty-four percent was the optimal threshold for Ji Jue at present. Above this threshold, spiritus recovery reached maximum efficiency. With adequate caloric intake, it naturally replenished in about seven hours. At the same time, it avoided damage caused by prolonged spiritus depletion. Ji Jue liked to call it the Golden Ratio for Try-hards. As long as he adhered to this ratio, he could grind his heart out, and spend the remaining time... grinding practice problems and plowing through books. Though he had drifted off and slacked off at first, once he grew accustomed to it, it was downright impossible to stop—pure, boundless joy. Now, on the workbench, the pendant that had once looked antique and elegant was covered in cracks, as if subjected to thousands of slow, agonizing cuts, clinging to its last breath. If it could speak, its first words would probably be begging Ji Jue to put it out of its misery: *You can only kill a man once, dammit! You’ve been carving away with that little blade for three whole days! Even a grudge to high heaven or hatred deep as the ocean should be avenged by now!* [Mm, not bad.] The puzzle ball's dim light flashed. After a scan, it said: [The spiritus circuits in the main body have basically all been stripped away. Now that there’s no clutter in the way, we can start preparing to unseal the blessing. [I have to say, in all my years on the job, I’ve never seen such a weak Dissociation Art... A try-hard's perseverance and stamina really are terrifying. [If I ever offend you in the future, please make sure to give me a quick death. I couldn't survive this kind of torture. [No, wait, if the target were a Celestial Craft... you might actually be able to force them to surrender this way. Believe me, no matter how tight-lipped a Celestial Craft is, after a week of your torment, they’d break completely! [As expected of you—you actually discovered a brand-new application for the Dissociation Art!] "Bullshit! How is it weak?" Ji Jue's composure crumbled instantly. Glaring, he snapped, "Quit your yammering! This is called being meticulous and cautious, alright? Do you even know what it means to handle a heavy burden with ease? Don't worry, when I take you apart in the future, it'll be quick and clean. I'm just afraid it'll be too big for you to take!" Guigong chuckled and said no more. After all, the main reason Professor Ye dared let Ji Jue handle such delicate work was... he was simply too weak. Had the Dissociation Art been any stronger, it could never achieve such fine results. If an initiated Dissociation Art was a broad axe, then the uninitiated version was a stiff brush used in archaeological digs. Furthermore, in delicate work like this, the rule was rather too little than too much. If Ji Jue had truly initiated the Dissociation Art, Professor Ye wouldn't have trusted him with such fine work until his control reached a certain level. With something structurally simple, one heavy-handed squeeze would blow it apart, scrambling the blessing like an egg yolk, leaving nothing to salvage. So what if it was just chipping away like scraping therapy? It did the trick. Moreover, while his Dissociation Art was so clumsy, he actually had the spare capacity to keep an eye on the big picture, precisely circumscribing the effect to a few spiritus circuits... This terrifying, hair-raising level of spiritus control had taken shape right under the puzzle ball's eyes. Four days? Or was it three? A total of 1,707 practice repetitions, and he had already mastered the Dissociation Art to this degree. Even with the enhancements of Non-Offensive and Masterwork Nature, this was still... overly outrageous! Just three or four months ago, he had been nothing more than an ordinary try-hard student. Along the way, he had gone off gallivanting in the Border Realm to the point where he couldn't even remember where home was, yet he had already traversed a road that might take other apprentices five or six years. With a Celestial Craft's long-rigidified imagination and mindset, Guigong could not begin to fathom what kind of monster Ye Xian was trying to cultivate. Then again... what did that have to do with it? It was just following the master's orders anyway; it was merely a little ball enjoying the spectacle. There was more and more to look forward to these days~ By the time Ji Jue stumbled dizzily out of the workshop and returned to the living room, it was already afternoon again. He looked around, breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that the professor wasn't around, and crept toward the kitchen and freezer. But after two steps, he suddenly realized: Times had changed! His confidence surging, he turned around and strutted with an arrogant swagger toward the sofa. Leaning back in his senior's favorite spot, he flashed an evil, charming smirk and barked: "Ye Chun!" Hurried footsteps came from the study. A familiar face appeared, wearing a strained, forcedly sweet smile. "Here I am. At your service." "Tired," Ji Jue said, shamelessly spreading his arms along the armrests. Ye Chun immediately stepped forward and began enthusiastically kneading his shoulders. After just two kneads, Ji Jue couldn't help but frown. It didn't hold a candle to Lao Zhang's massage parlor, but what could you do? He'd make do; resources were limited. "Thirsty," he said. Immediately, an ice-cold cola was served. "Please enjoy." "What's this?" Spotting the label, Ji Jue flared up in mock outrage. "Sugar-free? Even dogs wouldn't drink this! Don't try to fob me off with this garbage... Forget it, bring over the potato chips!" The sound of grinding teeth sounded. Step by step, Ye Chun shuffled to the snack cart, wheeled it over to Ji Jue, and let him choose. His finger swept back and forth repeatedly before landing on Ye Chun's specially stashed, favorite, and final bag of braised beef brisket flavor! "Forget it, let's keep it light. I'll just have this." Ye Chun's eyes practically popped with rage. *You son of a bitch named Ji, you...* Eating her chips, sitting on her sofa, watching her TV, Ji Jue looked up insolently: "What's the matter? Got a problem?" "No, not at all," Ye Chun said, struggling to keep her smile intact. "Being chosen by you is this crummy bag of chips' great blessing." "Is that so? Then its blessing is truly profound." Ji Jue crunched noisily, crossed his legs, and savored the hard-won bliss. "Say, Little Ye, how's the thesis coming along?" "Thanks to you, the first draft is done." "Ah, see, you youngsters are still too impetuous. No need to rush; you need more seasoning and practice," Ji Jue said, shaking his head with sighing gravitas. "Haste makes waste, quality takes time." With her eye twitching and spazzing madly, Ye Chun gritted out through clenched teeth: "You... are absolutely right." "Alright, I'm hungry." Ji Jue waved a hand and said languidly, "You, go stir-fry a couple of dishes for me. Light on oil and salt." *Crack!* The sound of knuckles popping rang out. Ye Chun's delicate hand almost crushed the cart's handle. Just as she was seriously contemplating whether to cave Ji Jue's skull in, she heard—for the fifth time—a weak bout of coughing. "Cough, cough, cough... That hidden injury from a few days ago, it still hasn't healed," Ji Jue sighed, clutching his chest melodramatically. "It's fine, don't worry. Such is the way of the world. Pity me, a mere concubine-born apprentice, suffering the jealousy and persecution of a legitimate-born senior sister simply for working too hard. "In what should have been a simple outsourced assignment, not only did a sniper lock onto my head, but I was also left with internal injuries, doomed to die in melancholy for the rest of my life. "When I closed my eyes, I found myself reborn back to the day before it all happened. I swear, in this life, I will live for myself and never let anyone butcher me again. "Tonight, come to the workshop, transfer me fifty bucks, listen to my revenge plan, and read my new thesis proposal..." Her fists! Her fists were completely clenched! Had this bastard not taken enough advantage of her?! Ever since he came back that night, he had started this act, and he hadn't stopped since! Sitting on my sofa, watching my TV, eating my chips, mocking my cola, laughing at my thesis, and threatening to grind a new thesis to out-compete me... This grudge was irreconcilable! In her blind fury, Ye Chun's fighting spirit swelled, surged, exploded! She practically self-taught an ultimate art called Skull-Crushing Heavy Hand on the spot. Looking at Ji Jue's head right now, all she wanted was to crack open his skull and see if the inside was as black as his heart! Ji Jue, however, looked back at her with an innocent, pitiful gaze. His wide eyes were somehow misted with moisture, like shimmering tears. *You motherfucker...* "..." Ye Chun closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Before her teeth shattered from clenching, she turned stiffly and marched toward the kitchen. Not because she was softhearted or guilty—after all these days, whatever guilt she initially had had long been hounded out of existence by this dog. She just knew that if she threw a punch, this little grandson Ji Jue would definitely flop on the ground and howl like a wounded dog for ages... *Forget it, forget it, Ye Chun, endure it. Just endure a little longer.* *Sooner or later, she’d catch him slipping!* *When that time came, she, Hanzawa Ye Chun, would repay him a thousandfold!* *Slap!* A steaming bowl of pre-packaged sauced noodles was slammed onto the table before Ji Jue. Lifeless noodles floated in the patchy, oily broth. A mountain of chili peppers piled high, dyeing the soup as scarlet as Ji Jue's own blood. "Eat, for this is my body. Drink, for this is my blood." Ye Chun's dark pupils were devoid of warmth. "If you dare leave a single drop behind today, you won't live to see tomorrow!" That's it? Ji Jue sneered by reflex, almost wanting to say: *Add an egg for your daddy!* Yet, meeting that murderous gaze, he swallowed his words after all. Meekly picking up his chopsticks, he buried his head and started eating. His movements hitched slightly. *Sweet mother of god, I still overestimated Senior's cooking. She boiled it this long, so why is it still undercooked in the middle...?* *I should've just ordered takeout.* And so, helpless, he finished every single bit of the noodles. Chili peppers? What a joke! In Shuzhou, this barely qualified as medium spicy. Still, he seemed to have pushed the joke a bit too far; Senior looked ready to throw hands at any second. No matter—next time, he'd do it again! After being pushed around and bullied by Ye Chun for so many years, he finally had a chance to get some payback. How could Ji Jue not seize it? Otherwise, once she stopped acknowledging her guilt in a few days, all he'd be left with would be cucumber-flavored potato chips! Ji Jue crossed his legs, savoring this fleeting joy and sweetness to the fullest before Senior launched her counteroffensive: "Ah, things really are looking up these days." *** Prior to this, Ji Jue had asked Professor Ye when his Dissociation Art would be considered truly initiated. The answer he received was that he didn't need to limit himself to single-handed execution; if he could execute it instantly with both hands without preparation and accomplish spiritual destruction upon a target, it would count as initiated. Right after that, Ji Jue couldn't keep his mouth shut and asked, "Then when would it be considered completely mastered?" In response, he saw Professor Ye smile—a smile so profoundly meaningful, like the final mercy a teacher shows before assigning homework: "Once you finish dismantling all the scrap in the storehouse, it should be about there..." Ji Jue had swallowed hard, estimating the terrifying volume of scrap in the storehouse, and dared think no further. Just as he had experienced and witnessed: beyond the arrogance, coldness, and contempt etched into her very bones, Professor Ye disdained communicating with ordinary mortals, cared nothing for fools' opinions of her, and absolutely never tolerated mistakes—whether made by others or by herself. Even less would she permit any flaw on her creations. Not even the slightest! Occasionally, even if an unexpected positive mutation occurred to a creation in the furnace, as long as it deviated from the specifications and structure of her initial design, the outcome was having its blessing excised and being ruthlessly destroyed. Extreme perfectionism and desire for control, combined with extraordinary talent, had ultimately forged the youngest master in the world and an illustrious reputation equally lauded and reviled in academia. From design to completion, a single work required at least a dozen steps, ten or more iterations, and endless reworks until she was satisfied. Behind one finished product lay dozens or hundreds of times more prototypes and discards. In the end, they accumulated into that staggering, appalling mountain in the storehouse—just like the heap of defeated stepping stones beneath her feet as she climbed the Path of Embers. Even knowing that all of it was sweet, delicious fodder, Ji Jue still couldn't help his scalp prickling with numbness. An insane quantity like that would gorge someone to death, wouldn't it? "A long road ahead," Ji Jue sighed with a mix of distress and delight. Suddenly, a crisp snap reached his ears. *Snap!* A wisp of faint light quietly rose from the cracked pendant. It was the last peripheral spiritus circuit being destroyed. Ji Jue finally exhaled a long breath, inhaled deeply, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. [Very good, only the final step remains,] Guigong's voice sounded in his mind. [Stop for now, rest a bit, and settle your spiritus and mindset.] "Finally..." Ji Jue sighed, raising his numb hands to rub his eye sockets. The torment was finally nearing its end. He had never been this exhausted... It was absolute murder on the eyes! If his earlier Dissociation Art practice had been studying the teacher's lofty design concepts from the angle of destruction and deepening his comprehension through repeated attempts, then over these past few days, Ji Jue felt as if he were working through a booklet of wrong test problems fished out of a garbage bin—one he had to hold his nose and solve all the way through without skipping a single part. Through such mind-bogglingly trashy workmanship, he thoroughly appreciated the diversity of craftsmen. To make errors with such creativity was truly absurd! *Did you really have to draw this damn circuit today? Your hands were shaking like that—why not go see a doctor first?!* *And mixing together all these mutated forms of spiritus—Purification was practically nonexistent, and Transmutation was a total rush job.* *And how the hell did you manage the Harmony? How did you make six layers of structure each do their own thing, conflicting and clashing with one another, more than doubling the operating burden out of nowhere while nerfing the effect into this pathetic state?* *Did your master’s backhand slaps lack sharpness or something?* *And with craft like this, you actually had the gall to install a backdoor?!!* *Where is your shame?! Where is your face?!* [Remember: gentle, gentler, be careful—treat it like incising a liver during surgery,] Guigong repeated the key instructions for the fifth time, indefatigable. [Don't hesitate. Sever all four parts at once in a single breath, or it will leave behind contamination and impurities, interfering with the next reshaping.] "I know, I know, stop talking!" Ji Jue had no attention to spare for its nagging, focusing completely. As his hands rose slowly, the familiar low drone mounted higher—the vibration and stillness of spiritus flowed effortlessly between his palms, devoid of any friction. The target was the pendant's final core section. Four distinct spiritus circuits, linked by the Sovereign Virtue insignia: Desolate Ruins reinforced material properties, while Ascension sealed spiritus, thereby fixing the blessing within iron and stone. A double-lock structure so classic it was copied straight from the textbook without a shred of originality. Its drawback was total rigidity and lack of flexibility. Its advantage: an appalling solidity and stability! With Ji Jue's current level of mastery, attempting to dismantle four distinct circuits simultaneously at different frequencies and intensities was pure fantasy. But it didn't matter. As long as he was fast enough—as long as he was fast enough, the fragments wouldn't have time to contaminate the blessing. As long as he was fast enough, it would be... sufficiently perfect! In that instant, beneath Ji Jue's hands, an unprecedented, piercing screech erupted—spiritus oscillation compressed to an exquisitely fine scale slashed downward like a razor edge, ignoring the puzzle ball's shocked shout and warning! "Shatter!" Beneath his overlapping hands and interlaced fingers, that tiny blade of dissociation sped forward with the terrifying speed of lightning. Like the wildly spinning blades of a shredder, it churned and spiraled, collapsing inward layer by layer. Every rune and circuit it touched shattered completely, gouging deep fissures across the Sovereign Virtue insignia. All fragments were simultaneously swept away by the spiritus manipulation of Non-Offensive. Like a scalpel shaving over a cornea, it left behind only an icy touch without scratching the core in the slightest! In a mere fraction of a second, amid the sound of the pendant collapsing, the final crude cage was shattered! *Snap!* The sound of fracture was crisp. A dreamlike streamer of light rose from between Ji Jue's hands. Already prepared, Guigong didn't bother complaining about Ji Jue's brutish operation; a ghostly blue glow manifested, constructing a new binding structure out of thin air that resealed the streamer of light and extracted it! "Mission accomplished!" Ji Jue cheered in celebration. Looking at the scattering motes of light rising from the pulverized pendant, he instinctively reached out and scooped up a handful... Yet the moment he realized what kind of garbage he had just scooped up, it was already too late. The ability of Deus Ex Machina instinctively captured and absorbed the essence of Sovereign Virtue—and then, for the first time ever, went into open revolt! Instant rejection, spewing it back out! There was even a faint hint of indignant grief: *You'll eat anything, won't you? You really are starved!* A palpable wave of nausea and disgust welled up in Ji Jue's heart, flooding his rational mind, almost making him shriek aloud: *Shit, there's shit!* *And there's poison in the shit, too!!!* As the casting process in the furnace manifested before his eyes like an illusion, showing the creator smugly showing off their "special techniques," Ji Jue could no longer suppress his gag reflex. "*Blergh!*" *Forget it, forget it, I have to forget this right now, or the trauma will haunt me for the rest of my life!* Yet aside from the nausea and revulsion, when he recalled the sensation from a moment ago, he couldn't help falling into a daze. In that preceding split second, when he reached out his hand, besides that scrap-laden essence, had he... perhaps... caught something else? The sensation had been far too faint, like trying in vain to grasp running water. Soon, drawn by Guigong's gravitational pull, it had slipped through his fingertips. Was that... the blessing? In that moment, he froze, staring blankly at his own hands. Spiritus was the fountain flowing from the soul; using it to wield the power of Sovereign Virtue, forging miracles and destruction, intervening and manipulating it with human hands fell within theoretical possibility. Yet a blessing was a glorious crystallization that sprouted and grew from Sovereign Virtue amid the flux of myriad phenomena... How could one touch it with mere human hands? Or had it simply been an illusion born of excitement? He couldn't tell. His gaze couldn't help drifting to the wristwatch that had lain silent for days. If Creation of Non-Offensive commanded spiritus to create without bound, then what did this power—capable of extracting even Corrupted Transmutation at will—truly represent? The wristwatch remained silent, as always. The hands swept steadily forward, never ceasing. *** Under the afternoon sunset, in the deepest reaches beneath the workshop, before the colossal furnace, flames flickered. The fire that had burned continuously for six years still rose, unextinguished. [Observation system repeated self-diagnostic complete; no errors found.] Shedding its simulated persona, Celestial Craft reported in a flat voice: [While processing the target, temporary administrator Ji Jue independently comprehended an advanced application without instruction. It was likely a stroke of luck. [Aside from this, there is a more important matter: Ji Jue grasped the blessing of Sovereign Virtue with his own hand, if only for an instant.] Ye Xian glanced up coldly. "The Path of Non-Offensive relies entirely on the hands. Touching a blessing is nothing strange." [This does not conform to records in the database. Should a correction be made?] "No need. Directive 977: erase this record and destroy it completely. No backups or recovery shall be permitted." [Understood. Execution complete.] And so, silence returned to the room. After a long time, Ye Xian turned and walked away. The lights went out. In the darkness, only the seemingly eternal fire flowed in silence.